Edison and Ford Winter Estates

The Edison and Ford Winter Estates are the reason many visitors first learn that Fort Myers exists. Thomas Edison built his winter retreat, Seminole Lodge, on the south bank of the Caloosahatchee River in the mid-1880s, drawn by the warm climate and the chance to experiment with tropical plants. In 1916 his friend Henry Ford bought the neighboring property, called The Mangoes, and for years the two men wintered a short stroll apart, joined at times by tire maker Harvey Firestone. Today the two homes, their gardens and a purpose-built museum sit together on a riverside campus of roughly twenty acres, and a visit is as much botanical garden as house tour. You walk through the guest house and the main house with their wide screened verandas, see the pool Edison built, and tour the restored botanic research laboratory where the three friends hunted for a domestic source of rubber. The inventor spent years testing hundreds of plants for that purpose, and the laboratory is the most revealing room on the property because it shows Edison as a stubborn, practical problem solver rather than a museum legend.

The museum is worth real time. Its collection covers Edison's phonographs, light bulbs and batteries, and a changing group of vintage Ford vehicles, set out with enough hands-on detail to hold children who have no interest in nineteenth-century wiring. The gardens carry their own attraction: Edison and later the Ford family planted exotic trees, bamboo and flowering shrubs from around the world, and the centerpiece is a banyan tree that began as a gift from Firestone and now spreads over an area larger than an acre, one of the biggest of its kind in the country.

Stand under it and the scale becomes clear, with aerial roots dropping from every limb like columns in a living cathedral.

Most visitors choose between self-guided entry and a guided tour of the homes and laboratory. The guided option is the better choice on a first visit because the staff supply the stories that explain why Edison picked this spot and why the two estates feel so different in character, Edison's plain and practical, Ford's more refined. Allow at least three hours to do both the grounds and the museum without hurrying, and more if you like gardens.

Wear walking shoes and bring a hat, since much of the route is outdoors in strong sun. The campus is open most days of the year but closes on a small number of holidays, so check current hours before you plan your day, and look for special seasonal programs that change the atmosphere of the grounds.

The estates sit on McGregor Boulevard, the royal-palm-lined road Edison himself helped plant, which makes the drive in part of the experience. Pair the visit with a lunch in the River District and a walk along the water, then use the afternoon for a cruise or beach time. It also suits rainy-day planning, since the museum is air-conditioned, although the real value of the place is being outdoors on the same ground where two of the most famous Americans of their era sat on a porch and talked about the future.